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A Missing Piece of the Social Media Puzzle

Across
the globe, companies struggle to get their social media strategy right. The
ones that succeed tend to go beyond the numbers game, where the aim is to collect
as many forwards or followers as possible, and recognize the power of close,
genuine interactions between individuals and brands.

Here
in China, two brands stand out for their ability to create close engagement
with consumers. First is Lancome’s Rose
Beauty online community, with close to 900,000 members. The other is BMW, who
have created an online community with 150,000 car fans that get together and share
their interest in and their admiration of cars.

Lancome
and BMW are good at utilizing their platforms for marketing purposes and see
ROI on their social media spend. Now there are brands in China that experiment
with how their online infrastructure can be used for other purposes, especially
as a source of consumer insight.

These
brands bring in professional researchers and community moderators to facilitate
conversations that help create better products and services, tailored to the
lives of the smart and picky Chinese consumer. Traditionally, companies have
relied on focus groups, surveys or direct feedback from their customers. But online
infrastructure (or communities) offer an unprecedented opportunity for immediate
access to what customer think and get to know them over a longer period of
time.

Not
only do online communities offer cost effective consumer research, but in
communities that are moderated by professional researchers brands can get to a
depth of insight that has been difficult to attain before. The nuance and
intimate details of consumers’ relationships with a brand can be studied as
they unfold, change, and happen.

People
tend to speak more honestly about what they do and think than what they normally
would in other forms of research because participants feel a part of a community.
When others in that community frankly share their experience and advice trust
is built. While this trust grows, participants come to feel like they belong to
something worthwhile and develop a concern for others in that community. This
fosters a willingness to contribute to that community in a real and intimate
way.

For
example, in our research community with diabetes patients, members are more
willing to admit how they re-use syringes to save money. In our mums community we
hear about pregnant women’s efforts to lose weight when they are still
pregnant, normally a taboo in Chinese society. Mums tell of the joy of stealing
a plush toy from a store decoration, or the sadness over a lost sex life after
giving birth, which rare to hear in offline research.

Regardless
of the purpose of a community, a successful one happens when its creators take
seriously and understand that online environments are now important social
places for people. It happens when the hosts know how to create the “social
glue” that is essential to people feeling part of a community and being able to
contribute. Community experts know how to build warm and inviting places where
people want to hang out.

These
environments do not happen organically but require a dedicated team and lots of
hard work. As creators of some of the most highly engaged private insight
communities in China we have identified five golden rules to help create
dynamic and intimate social spaces online.

BE A GENEROUS AND GRACIOUS HOST

A good host makes everyone feel welcome. They introduce guests to
facilitate conversations, but do not talk too much about themselves. This
means that from a design perspective people should come first, not the
brand. Think about an online community as a venue that your brand
sponsors. That means you have to make sure that everything works, but you
cannot push sales or dictate conversations. If you do push sales or
dictate conversations people will find other spaces online where they can
“hang out” and be in control, and will be unlikely to return to your place.

ASSIGN ROLES

Moderators of a community play a vital role in a vibrant community. Think
about how to assign moderators different personalities and how these are to
be performed. For example, if you
have 2-3 moderators it works well to have someone that is perceived as
warm and welcoming while another can be a bit more rigid and can step in
when someone needs to be counseled.

ENTERTAIN YOUR GUESTS AND MAKE
MEMBERS FEEL USEFUL

After you have built the community, assigned roles and recruited members
the hard part starts –making sure people want to come back. Launch competitions,
do mini polls, ask questions, send members out on a task. These are the
activities that make members feel like they are contributing to the
community, a valued part of that community. As a host you need to do what
you can to encourage and foster this feeling and behavior.

CLEAN UP

Make sure your “house” is in order and show members that someone looks
after it and cares about it. Delete spam posts, regularly update your
landing page and respond to your members’ inquiries promptly.

SHOW THAT YOUR SPACE IS POPULAR

Make it easy to see the latest updates to demonstrate to others that this
is a “hot” place to hang out. Show who is the latest member to join, what
is trending, the popular conversations and the most read threads. And
remember that in China the preference for website design is somewhat
different, details and lots of information are preferred rather than “clean”
and minimalistic layouts.

It
is an exciting time when we consider how online places and the communities they
enable are now a key part of people lives. It is up to us to figure out how to
best use and support these places, and so be a part of these communities. In
China, with over 500 million consumers online and where brands constantly
misjudge what their customers want we should really embrace the potential of
what these online communities can offer.